Around the house

As much as I am dying for a new house, I keep trying to keep myself from going crazy while stuck here by continuing to do small projects and picking up little things here and there I totally don’t need or have room for (LOL). Here are the latest bits and bobs that I’ve worked on or purchased.

First up – I got a little tired and bored with the centrepiece on my dining table. Because my house is so small and my dining space is in the middle of the kitchen, it means the dining table is prime real estate for displays. (You can see photos of what has been hanging out on my table for the past several months here). I went to Value Village Friday and found a wooden tray for $3.99, then went around the house collecting pieces I thought would work for a fall theme. I have a red and orange batik table runner I may put down too (but the cats tend to lay on the table where there’s fabric on it).

While rearranging the dining table decor, I decided to switch things up a bit on the display shelving in the kitchen (this is what it looked like). It’s the same colour scheme as before and alot of the same pieces but I was dying to get my Catherine Holm enamel pot out of storage.

I unearthed a few things from the basement that I was anxious to put to use again, like a couple of vintage floral frogs. One of them is now on the kitchen counter with some ceramic branches (actually oil diffuser reeds) next to Larry, my Chive gnome.

I don’t recall sharing my vintage radio here on the blog so I snapped some photos yesterday. My husband and brother-in-law have a little side business called Daff Design where they gut old radios and refit them with modern components (like speakers and bluetooth). This one is on the opposite wall of my desk so I play music via my Mac through it while I’m working. Handy, and looks cool to boot!

When I was perusing the aisles of Value Village Friday I came across a large storage container. I thought it was pretty sweet, but saw the $60 price tag and moved on. Saturday morning I remembered it and showed my husband a quick photo I had snapped of it on Instagram. He liked it too so I hopped in the car and went back to the store to grab it (the cashier told me he didn’t think anyone would pay $60 – sucker that I am). It is made of fibreglass and was used in the military (it has a sticker on it that says National Defense and Petawawa). It is 20″ wide and about 2.5 ft tall. I’m thinking of using it in the upstairs bathroom instead of the 2 ceramic stools I have in there that I hate, to store extra pillows and linens in it. It needs a good cleaning first.

I picked up yet another wooden crate last month (a beautiful one found at High Jinx) and thought it could be put to good use to store some of my favourite wool blankets I wouldn’t dare actually use in a house full of cat fur. Fed up with them being stashed out of sight, they now reside in the living room where I can admire them often.

With the cold weather making it’s way here, I started pulling out rugs and sheepskins from storage to keep things a little cozier in this drafty house. This season I decided on some wool Flor carpet tiles I had received to review on the blog a while back as the living room rug. LOVE these – I am a huge fan of the versatility of carpet tiles (esoecially when cats seem to aim barf at carpets).